With stress on the rise, it’s essential to cultivate the qualities that enable you to bounce back.

As an ophthalmic professional in the COVID-19 era, you are likely experiencing increased stress at work. You are not alone! According to a recent survey of American workers, 40% reported their job was “very or extremely stressful,” and 75% of employees “believe that workers have more on-the-job stress than a generation ago.”¹ When dealing with stress, you might find it challenging to demonstrate resilience — a necessary ingredient to offering excellent patient care.

Before discussing how to demonstrate resilience, let’s define it. According to Merriam-Webster, resilience is “the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties” or “toughness.” The term resilience can also refer to “the ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape” or “elasticity.” When stress increases, our resilience often decreases. We lose our ability to “bounce back” and manage a crisis. Fortunately, there are effective tactics to help you decrease stress and build resilience — allowing you to minimize workplace strains and focus on the patient.

Begin with hope

First, consider ways to infuse more hope into your practice environment. While hope is defined as “…want[ing] something to happen or be true” (hat tip again to Merriam-Webster), it can also include a person or thing that may help or save someone. Your role in ophthalmology provides a unique opportunity to fulfill patients’ hopes for better vision.

Within your practice, you can use this hope to build resilience. For example, creating a daily list of the patients you’ve helped can remind you that your role is essential to positive patient outcomes. (To ensure patient confidentiality, use a system to track first names or initials.) When staff complain about “cranky” or “difficult” people, use your list to tell stories of how your work brought hope to patients. Exercises such as this can help your team refocus on their goal of helping patients, rather than ruminate on negative interactions that cause stress.

Increase resilience

Next, review ways to increase your resilience, allowing you to flex your customer service skills to meet patients’ needs. According to Kenneth Ginsburg, MD, MSEd, a pediatrician and human development expert, people have more flexibility through competence, confidence, character, control, and connection.² To forge a path to better well-being and increase your opportunities to provide better customer service, determine ways to improve these five areas:

 Competence. Your physicians and managers have likely asked you to perform many office duties during the past year, some of which were new or in addition to your usual job functions. If that is the case, take some time to review these new tasks and ask yourself: Do you feel competent in your role? Where are some gaps in your knowledge? Make a list of areas you would like to learn more about, and schedule a conference with your supervisor to discuss. Becoming more competent in your daily tasks will decrease stress and allow you to translate your knowledge into your daily patient interactions.

 Confidence. When you are competent at what you do, it helps you build self-confidence, which is a result of time-honored good work and a great attitude. To build more confidence at work, stay on-task and focused — regardless of politics, rumor mills or non-productive maneuvers.³ This sense of purpose and self-worth can assist in dealing with challenging issues, such as angry patients making remarks about wearing masks or vaccination mandates. In these kinds of difficult scenarios, bring yourself and your patients back to the purpose of their visit: “I appreciate your thoughts, Mr. Jones, but that is out of my control. What I can do is prepare you to see Dr. Juan. Let’s start your exam.” This type of calm, confident redirection is a great tool that can help you remain resilient in tricky situations.

 Character. Taking the time to improve yourself (becoming more competent) and leading others by example (displaying confidence) builds character — another key aspect of a resilient nature. In a recent article, author Lisa Mooney asserts that the workplace offers opportunities to help you develop positive traits, such as integrity, discipline, generosity, and respectfulness.⁴ For example, if you encounter a patient who is upset about completing forms, use this opportunity to ensure your reactions stem from integrity and respectfulness by taking the time to help that patient with the paperwork and providing the appropriate reassurance. Knowing that your work reflects your character allows you to override unpleasant conversations and build resilience.

 Control. During the past few years, you may have begun to feel that outside circumstances were diminishing your ability to influence others. While you cannot control the world around you, you can influence your patients’ experiences by assisting them with their eye care or performing your daily tasks. Learning what you can control (e.g., directing patient behavior) vs. what you cannot (e.g., mask mandates) can help you bounce back from setbacks more quickly and focus on being a positive influence.

 Connection. After enduring periods of isolation these past few years, it is no wonder our resilience is lacking. We have been separated from family, work, school, and social events in various ways. Because humans are social creatures by nature, this forced isolation has greatly impacted our resilience.

Fortunately, as an ophthalmic professional, your days are rich with opportunities to socialize and develop a rapport with your patients. Could you compliment a patient’s outfit or jacket? Do you have a personal note related to their grandchildren or birthday in the chart? By using your daily interactions to build connections throughout your practice, you can infuse some resilience back into your life.

Greater resilience = better service

Given all today’s additional pressure points, it’s so critical to improve customer service in your practice by working to instill hope back into the workplace. With that hope, you can increase resilience, which has many benefits: building competency, confidence, connection with others, positive character traits, and, ultimately, a sense of control. Work on these tips to achieve a happier work environment that translates to excellent customer service. OP

REFERENCES:

1. Stress at work. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). No. 99–101. DHHS. https://tinyurl.com/2baz2b6s . Accessed March 23, 2022.
2. The 7 Cs of resilience. CBT Professionals. Dec. 14, 2013. https://cbtprofessionals.com.au/the-7-cs-of-resilience/ . Accessed March 23, 2022.
3. Smith J. How to be more confident at work. Mar. 6, 2012. https://tinyurl.com/3xrvvmha . Accessed March 23, 2022.
4. Mooney L. How to build character at work. CHRON. https://smallbusiness.chron.com/build-character-work-23373.html . Accessed March 23, 2022.